The highest paid public servant in this year’s database is Doug Pearce, head of the B.C. Investment Management Corp. (bcIMC), who made just a few bucks shy of a million dollars in 2011: $999,977.Handout
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Seven of the 10 highest-paid public servants in B.C. work for just two agencies: BC Ferries and Powerex, according to the latest version of The Vancouver Sun’s public-sector salary database.

The database also reveals that those at the very top of the public-sector pay rankings are doing extremely well, with the top 10 bringing home more cash than at any point since the database first launched in 2008.

Among the top 10 this year, the median salary — meaning five were above that level and five were below — was about $920,000.

Last year, the median was just $565,000 and, in the three years before that, the median never rose above $680,000.

The huge spike is due to a series of massive year-over-year pay increases for a handful of executives at BC Ferries and top traders at Powerex, the energy-trading arm of BC Hydro.

BC Ferries says the windfall its executives received was a one-off event related to a change in bonuses and that its executives’ pay should drop considerably in next year’s database.

In contrast, the raises for Powerex’s top traders are due to a permanent change in their contracts, meaning the traders can likely expect to earn salaries just shy of a million dollars apiece for years to come.

The BC Ferries board decided in 2011 to phase out its bonus plan for senior executives after controversy erupted over the high pay of its executives, in particular then-CEO David Hahn’s million-dollar pay package.

BC Ferries estimated phasing out the plan would save about $700,000 a year.

But, as part of the phase-out, senior executives who had been in the plan were entitled to one-time cancellation payments as well as any bonuses they had earned in previous years but not yet received.

The result was huge one-time payouts for BC Ferries’ top executives in 2011.

Michael Corrigan, now BC Ferries president but then its chief operating officer, went from making $558,631 in 2010 to $944,400 in 2011, a 69-per-cent increase.

Chief financial officer Robert Clarke went from $496,520 to $828,096, a jump of 67 per cent.

And Glen Schwartz, head of human resources, saw his pay rise from $506,462 to $795,214, a 57-per-cent increase.

The only BC Ferries executive in the top 10 whose salary did not go up was Hahn, whose pay went down, from $1,051,899 to $929,673.

BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall explained in an email that because Hahn retired voluntarily at the end of 2011, he was not eligible for the cancellation payments like the other executives.

Marshall stressed the cancellation payments were a one-time payout and that, when BC Ferries reports its 2012 compensation figures later this year, it will show its executives’ pay has dropped considerably, below even 2010 levels: to about $450,000 for Corrigan, $380,000 for Schwartz and $375,000 for Clarke.

In contrast, the big raises at Powerex are here to stay.

Three of Powerex’s top traders — Thomas Bechard, Mark Holman and Robert Campbell — each saw year-over-year pay increases of 60 per cent or more.

Bechard went from earning $586,048 in 2010-11 to $947,730 in 2011-12, a 62-per-cent increase.

Those same three names were in the news two years ago, when The Sun reported that its salary database showed them receiving huge year-over-year increases between 2008-09 and 2009-10, vaulting all three onto the top 10 list.

At that time, Powerex president Teresa Conway explained the raises by noting that U.S. financial firm Morgan Stanley had tried to raid its top traders — successfully luring some of them away — and that Powerex had to increase the remaining traders’ pay to convince them to stay.

In an email this month, BC Hydro spokeswoman Simi Heer said the traders’ latest jump in pay is due to that same raid attempt.

Heer wrote that, after Morgan Stanley’s raid attempt, the three traders signed new compensation agreements with Powerex at the end of 2009-10 that entitled them to immediate bonuses as well as a new pay structure that would, in time, entitle them to total remuneration of more than $900,000 each.

“In recent years there has been increased competition from energy trading companies competing in the same market,” Heer wrote. “This increases recruitment pressures for top trading talent. ... We are doing the best we can to retain many of the traders who help make the company a success.”

BC Hydro said, based on the compensation agreements now in place, its top traders can expect to receive similar wages in 2012-13 as they did last year.

Powerex, which has about 180 employees, buys and sells energy to ensure B.C. has a reliable supply of electricity.

But it also tries to profit off those trades, profits that Hydro argues help keep electricity rates low and contribute to government revenues.

Since 2003, according to Hydro, Powerex has generated more than $1.5 billion in income for the utility.

The highest paid public servant in this year’s database is Doug Pearce, head of the B.C. Investment Management Corp. (bcIMC), who made just a few bucks shy of a million dollars in 2011: $999,977.

Lincoln Webb, bcIMC’s vice-president, also made the top 10 with total remuneration of $679,497.

Rick Mahler, chair of bcIMC, wrote in an email that the agency invests on behalf of the pension plans of more than 500,000 public-sector employees in B.C., an investment portfolio worth close to $100 billion.

“bcIMC competes worldwide with the best in the investment industry for these skills and we offer compensation packages that can attract and retain the expertise we require,” wrote Mahler.

The final name on the top 10 list is Doug Hyndman with the B.C. Securities Commission, at $534,043. Hyndman, BCSC’s longtime chair, was recently seconded to the Canadian Securities Transition Office to help establish a new national securities regulator.

In 2008, The Sun launched B.C.’s first searchable online database of public-sector salaries.

The database, which includes public servants who earn more than $75,000 a year, has been enormously popular, registering more than 10 million page views.

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